What Can $25 Start? Republic Kindness Experiment Offers an Unexpected Answer

 

At the beginning of Missouri Good Neighbor Week, I posed a simple question: What can $25 start?

Thanks to a $500 grant from Drop Dead Generous and a matching donor, we had $1,000 to find out.

The money purchased forty $25 gift cards from local businesses. During Missouri Good Neighbor Week, Sept. 28-Oct. 4, the cards were placed in unexpected locations around Republic: on gas pumps, library tables, in parks, stores, community spaces and other places people encounter during an ordinary day.

Each was tucked inside an envelope carrying a simple message: “This is for you, neighbor.” The envelope made it clear that there was no catch and that a $25 gift card was enclosed.

But giving away $1,000 was never really the experiment. The question was what happened after someone found an envelope.

Recipients were invited to tell us where they found their gift, what $25 meant to them that day, how the unexpected kindness made them feel and, most importantly, whether receiving kindness inspired them to extend kindness to someone else. That was the purpose from the beginning: not merely to distribute 40 gift cards, but to see whether kindness might become contagious. Drop Dead

Until 10 of the recipients responded. Less than I expected. But the early results suggest that $25 can start something.

A Tank of Gas and a Reminder About a Neighbor

One Republic resident found an envelope on a gas pump at Maverik.

The $25 nearly paid for an entire tank of gas and came at a particularly helpful time near the end of the month.

But his response went beyond appreciating the financial help.

The surprise caused him to think about how he relates to other people on a daily basis. Then his thoughts turned specifically toward an elderly neighbor who might need some assistance.

His response ended with a simple idea: he should check on that neighbor.

Another recipient found a $25 gift card on a pump at Casey's. It paid for her tank of gas and was a welcome financial boost.

But she, too, immediately started thinking beyond herself. She wondered what she could do for her immediate neighbors that weekend.

Her idea? Maybe bake them some cookies.

Baby Food Leads to Buying Someone Else's Coffee

Another envelope was discovered in the baby aisle at Price Cutter.

The recipient used the $25 to purchase baby food and said the unexpected gift made her day.

But what stayed with her was how such a small gesture could change someone's day.

She is a regular customer at 7 Brew, and she had already decided how she would respond: The next time she goes for coffee, she plans to pay for the car behind her.

That's exactly what we hoped might happen.

The original act ends, but its influence doesn't.

One Gift Card Was Never Going to Stay With Its Recipient

A woman who regularly visits the Little Free Library at Owen Park found a Starbucks gift card and letter tucked inside.

There was just one problem: she isn't much of a Starbucks fan. But her neighbor is.

So rather than use the card herself, she decided to give it to her neighbor.

A $25 gift intended for one stranger will now become an unexpected gift for another.

She described the discovery as a "ray of sunshine" in her day.

A Lowe's Card Becomes Smoke-Detector Batteries

One of my favorite responses came from someone who found a Lowe's gift card on a shopping cart.

He already knew of a need close to home. An elderly neighbor had asked if he would change the batteries in her smoke detector. She presumably would have paid for the batteries herself.

After finding the gift card, he decided otherwise. He would use his unexpected $25 to purchase the batteries and help his neighbor.

That is a pretty good return on investment.

The money didn't simply move from a grant to a gift-card recipient. It moved from the recipient toward meeting the need of someone living nearby.

Another Gift Helps Bake Something for the Neighbors

A Republic resident found a Walmart gift card on a gas pump at Eagle Stop.

Interestingly, the person at the pump before him had noticed the envelope but wouldn't touch it. His daughter suggested that people have become suspicious of unexpected objects because of frightening stories circulated online.

His conclusion demonstrates that our culture has become too negative and too suspicious.

But this man was glad he took a chance on the envelope.

He and his wife were already planning to bake something for their neighbors, and they decided the Walmart gift card could help purchase the ingredients.

Again, the gift kept moving.

Kindness Can Surprise Us Because We Don't Expect It

One response revealed another lesson from the experiment.

A recipient who discovered an envelope at the Republic Community Center initially wondered whether it was a trick. Then he opened it.

Inside was a $25 Walmart gift card, which he quickly put to use.

He hadn't known about Missouri Good Neighbor Week before finding the envelope. Now he did and he said the experience made him feel like he needed to pay the kindness forward.

Another person received an envelope during Pumpkin Daze and initially assumed it must be an advertisement or that there was some catch.

Instead, there was simply a gift. That reaction is worth considering.

Perhaps unexpected generosity has become unusual enough that when something good happens, our first question is, “What's the catch?”

Maybe we need more experiences that teach us there isn't one.

One Recipient Offered a Challenge

Not every response was simply celebratory.

A woman who found an Andy's gift card at the public library had already seen information about the experiment on social media and knew Missouri Good Neighbor Week was underway.

She appreciated the gift, but said it also made her think about the larger culture.

She wondered why more businesses and individuals weren't participating in similar acts and expressed concern that social media and modern life are making us more negative, self-focused and disconnected.

Her observation gets at something central to Missouri Good Neighbor Week: Connection requires more than clicking a heart or a thumbs-up.

Eventually, somebody has to show up. Somebody has to speak. Somebody has to knock on the door, bake the cookies, change the smoke-detector batteries, deliver the meal or learn the neighbor's name.

From Forty Gifts to Something Bigger

When we announced the Republic Kindness Experiment, I wrote that success wouldn't be measured simply by saying we had distributed $1,000 in gift cards.

The hope was that 40 envelopes wouldn't create only 40 acts of kindness. We hoped they might create hundreds. We can't know how far every act will travel.

Not everyone who found a card completed the survey. Not everyone who decides to do something kind will tell us about it. And the person who eventually receives cookies, coffee, smoke-detector batteries or a Starbucks card may never know that their gift began with an envelope placed somewhere else in Republic.

That's part of what makes the experiment interesting.

Already, however, the responses show a pattern.

• A gift became gas.
• Gas became thoughts about an elderly neighbor.
• Another gift became baby food.
• Baby food inspired buying a stranger's coffee.
• A Starbucks card became a gift for a neighbor.
• A Lowe's card became smoke-detector batteries for an older resident.
• A Walmart card became ingredients for something baked for neighbors.

The original $25 doesn't have to keep circulating for the kindness to continue.

The idea circulates. And perhaps that's the most encouraging result of the Republic Kindness Experiment.

Small acts don't have to solve enormous problems to matter. Sometimes their greatest value is that they interrupt an ordinary day and remind someone:

People still notice one another. People still care. And I can do something, too.

Drop Dead Generous gave us $500. A matching donor doubled it. Forty envelopes put that generosity into the hands of strangers throughout Republic. The original plan was deliberately simple: place unexpected gifts where people go about their everyday lives and see what happens next. Drop Dead

Now we have at least part of the answer.

What can $25 start? A tank of gas. A bag of baby food. A cup of coffee. Some cookies. A safer home for an elderly neighbor.

But more importantly, it can start another act of kindness.

And then another.

That's how neighboring grows.

WRITTEN BY

David L. Burton

For more information, visit the Engaged Neighbor website. Take our pledge and become part of a movement! Or subscribe to our newsletter. Access some of the research documents written by David Burton, the author of this blog. Or better yet, purchase one of his books off Amazon. Contact David L. Burton via email at dburton541@yahoo.